Members of the group Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students (CAPES) are working to overturn new education legislation called Arkansas LEARNS.
The group needs to collect over 54,000 signatures before the end of the month to get their proposal on the ballot.
LEARNS was signed into law by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders this year. Among many things, it raises starting teacher salaries, gives public dollars to students wishing to attend private schools, and allows private charter companies to take over struggling school districts.
CAPES is aiming to overturn the law by putting it on the ballot in November 2024. In Arkansas history, a citizen-led ballot initiative has never been successful in stopping legislation from going into effect.
After several attempts to get their ballot title approved, the 23-page ballot title to repeal a more than 140-page bill was approved by Attorney General Tim Griffin in June.
CAPES now has to acquire thousands of signatures by the end of the month. Steve Grappe, one of the volunteers for CAPES, has said he wants the group to collect 90,000 signatures since often signatures are thrown out for not matching the ones on voter rolls.
This weekend CAPES will set up drive-through petition signing events to collect more signatures.
Grappe says he is not sure how many signatures have been collected so far, but his group will start counting on Monday.
